Rodarte: Evening in Transition
Though their beaded dresses have floated across the red carpet, Kate and Laura Mulleavy imagine their pieces—which retail from $1,300 to $2,500—to be effortlessly worn and then tossed casually on a bedroom floor.
“I think the idea of eveningwear and red-carpet glamour is outdated,” said Kate, half of the Rodarte design team. “Obviously, there is eveningwear dress that you would not go out in the street and wear, though I think that is fabulous. To be modern, the pieces should transition. I think that is the way fashion is evolving.”
Rodarte was nominated at Gen Art’s Styles 2005 competition in the categories of Ready to Wear, for which the sisters submitted the label’s “transitional” bias-cut dresses with a one-pocket trench coat, and Eveningwear, for which they presented a black floor-length wool crepe and satin paneled dress.
The Gen Art competition was one of the many waves of excitement that the designers have been experiencing since they appeared in mainstream publications and showed their line at upscale vintage store Decades in Los Angeles during Los Angeles Fashion Week in March.
The sisters profess themselves to be “obsessed” with fashion—and any amount of time talking to them supports their claim. Both went to the University of California, Berkeley. Neither had formal fashion-design training, but they wholeheartedly threw themselves into the vision of creating their line. Kate sold her record collection and Laura sold her vintage clothing collection to help raise capital for the business. Laura holds a night job as a waitress to bring in additional income.
Rodarte produced a few Spring pieces, including a dress that actress Gretchen Mol wore to the Vanity Fair Oscar party, but the sisters mostly looked upon their first set of designs as a warm-up for their cohesive 10-piece Fall collection.
The two draw inspiration from a host of topics that share the rough theme of California, including the Gold Rush, the state’s untamed landscape and Hollywood costume design’s effect on American fashion.
The collection is full of graceful shapes, explained Laura, pointing, as an example, to their peach-colored dress with pinked edges and pheasant-feather details on silk satin crepe. “We wanted to do something feminine, but we don’t like coquettishness or preciousness,” she said, adding that the feeling of their collection is soft and elegant without being overt.
The line has been sold to Satine and Tracey Ross in Los Angeles and to Kirna Zabete in New York.
For more information, call (626) 616-6342. —Rhea Cortado
